There is no way of making Brexit work—but there are ways to contain the damage. Sadly, Labour won’t commit to them

Labour has long had problems with the idea of Europe. A statement by the party’s National Executive Committee in 1950 worried that European Union would act as a brake on socialist policies and that a customs union would cause “serious dislocation, unemployment and loss of production.” Its sister social democratic parties got on regardless with the task of constructing the early institutions of European integration.

Labour’s mistrust of the EU had historic consequences. Jeremy Corbyn’s feeble campaigning in the referendum campaign, coupled with his incomprehension of the issues at stake, ensured that many Labour voters were unaware of the party’s support for Remain. A year since the Brexit vote, it would be a euphemism to say Labour’s stance is in flux. No one knows what it is. While the Tories embark on tearing down Britain’s trading relationships and diplomatic alliances, Labour stumbles along behind crying: “Yes! But perhaps not so loud, please…”

A credible European stance would have a set of aims and acknowledged trade-offs. The policies announced by Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesperson, in the general election campaign made no sense at all, being essentially a series of bromides about wanting good things from Europe but not being prepared to pay for them. “We do not believe,” said Starmer “that leaving the EU means severing our ties with Europe. We do not believe that Brexit means weakening workers’ rights and environmental protections or slashing corporate tax rates.”

Brexit means all of those things, and more. According to Starmer, Labour won’t make…

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Comments

David Lindsay

June 29, 2017 at 18:30

Well, if anyone doubted that Corbyn was right, then this settles the matter.
It would be worth checking for Conservatives who did not vote on Chuka Umunna's amendment. There are certainly 60 in favour of the Single Market, but they are probably biding their time. Meanwhile, 49 Labour rebels, although very much the expected sort of figure, is pitiful. This was supposed to be the PLP's great post-Election reassertion of itself against Jeremy Corbyn. But it couldn't even muster one fifth of Labour MPs. More than 80 per cent are now at least resigned to Corbyn's Leadership. The ambitions of the likes of Umunna are over once and for all.

Alyson

July 3, 2017 at 09:14

Wanting the good things and not being prepared to pay for them? Labour? Leaving the EU will present the UK with a bill of around £100billion, which the Tories are of course happy to pay out of our tax payers' money, like they can pay a cool £1billion of our money to the DUP to cling onto power. For a cost that high they are clearly looking to squeeze some more out of the workers in this country, while at the same time continuing to slash taxes for the most wealthy. Brexit was a heist foisted onto an easily duped public by a small group of billionaires who see it as an investment for their benefit, not for the people of the UK. Labour respects the outcome of the referendum and will put jobs and mutual benefit at the heart of any deal with Europe. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time

Alisdair Hamilton-Wilkes

August 7, 2017 at 19:32

Labour and Corbyn's approach to Brexit comes straight from the Vladimir Putin playbook of hybrid warfare; say lots of conflicting things all at once so that nobody really knows what you think but assumes you're on their side. It's a simple, clever and (from an oppositional standpoint) winning tactic.
Of course it has no real integrity but there was none there to start with. It seems the author and other commenters are psycho-religious towards the EU and/or Corbyn by the way platitudes are repeated in the stream of drivel.

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